On Sunday, I posted my fifth original song to my YouTube Channel, “Much to Your Dismay.”

“Much to Your Dismay” is a song about being a survivor of an unhealthy relationship.

Who doesn’t want to find love? Who really wants to be alone?

Allison Merten with Guitar

Sometimes we do stupid things because we want love: like staying in a poisonous relationship.

We ignore red flags because we just want to have the “love” that everyone else seems to find.

This song is about gaining the strength to be alone, gaining the strength to trust again, and gaining the strength to come to terms with the fact that the person you were involved with was actually quite harmful to your well-being.

You think you’re going to marry or stay married to the person you’re with. Then, all of a sudden, that person tells you that it’s over. You feel destroyed. How can you find someone else? What happened to “love”? How can you live without that person?

The bridge of my song talks about being grateful that the person you were with ended things because you didn’t have the courage, or you were too blinded by the idea of love, to end things yourself.

For those of you who were in an unhealthy relationship, you should be proud of yourself for getting out of something awful.

If you are currently in one, I hope that you will find the courage to leave.